Ecuador's new international airport faces delays similar to those in Berlin

Ecuador, a small country sandwiched between Colombia and Peru and hitherto little known outside South America, has been in the media eye for the last three months, since the Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange took up residence in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London seeking diplomatic immunity from extradition, prompting a growing international crisis. While there is not the same degree of intrigue in the airport business in Ecuador the country is, like Germany, making heavy weather out of opening its new capital city airport.

Ecuador was part of the northern Inca Empire until the Spanish conquest in 1533. Quito, the capital, became a seat of Spanish colonial government in 1563. The country became known as the "Republic of the Equator." A border war with Peru that flared in 1995 was resolved in 1999.